Movie review - "Spirited Away" (2001) ****

 Bold, imaginative, gripping, all that stuff.

Movie review - "Bee Movie" (2007) **

 Some cuteness and enjoyable animation in the bee world. Drops off when it enters the human world and ends with a boring trial. Too much bee-human romance, just feels wrong. Rene Zellweger is very sweet.

Movie review - "The Secret of Nimh" (1982) ***

 I'm not that familiar with Don Bluth films. The animation is very fine, and there are memorable sequences such as visiting the owl and going underground - all the spooky stuff. There's some full on scenes of animal testing, people getting crushed and stabbed, and adult flirting. 

The story lacks momentum - it's about staying still, inside because a kid has pnuemonia. 

Really interesting voice cast including Wil Wheaton, Shanneon Doherty, Elizabeth Hartman and Aldo Ray! Hartman took her own life only a few yers later.

Movie review - "The Wild Robot" (2024) ***

 Very sweet animated movie, a little reminiscent of Wall E, about a robot on a planet who winds up raising an orphaned geese. Pulls at heart strings very effectively and some gorgeous animation. I got confused about where the humans were - it's on the same planet yes? Also the film seemed to end a few times - really it could have ended with the geese flying away the first time.

Movie review - "Looney Tunes Back in Action" (2003) **

 Joe Dante's last big budget studio feature (to date) - I wish he'd have the chance to do a few more but anyways... This has it charms, particularly some excellent animation, but doesn't quite work. Maybe too frantic or something. Maybe the real world is as cartoony as the cartoon world? Too noisy?

The human characters aren't that well defined. Brendan Fraser is an affable lunk and... that's it - a little more character wouldn't have hurt. (When he plays himself at the end, he has a real character... that had a lot of potential.) Ditto Jenna Elfman's exec... she's very undefined. Fraser is never believable as Timothy Dalton's son. Why not have an American actor play this part? There's no real core emotional relationship to anchor it.

 I think that's the issue - it lacks chaacter and relationships.

Movie review - "The Garfield Movie" (2024) ***

 Some strong plotting, funny jokes and an exciting sequence on a train at the end. It focuses a lot on Garfield and his dad, who sorry we don't really care about - John and Odie get sidelined - but it does give the film a core. All the main female roles are villainrs or winesome princesses which is a little odd in 2024.

Movie review - "Despicable Me 4" (2024) **

 Some funny jokes but it's sluggish. Gru goes into witness protection program - there's a heist of a mascot and a man getting revenge on Gru and he hasn't bonded with his son. I wanted more minions and less Gru but who am I to argue with success.

Movie review - "Inside Out 2" (2024) ****

 Funny how the public can smell a hit. They wanted to see it, sensed it was good, and came.

I was actually upset they wanted to make it, the first was so lovely but... actually it makes sense because the character is thirteen and there's a bunch of new emotions (anxiety, ennui, etc).

Good, cheap way to do therapy, clever script, typically strong animation, plenty of colour and action. I get why they avoided the boys issue.

Movie review - "Leo" (2023) ***1/2

 An unexpetedly lovely funny musical comedy about a tuatara who lives as a class pet and examines the lives of the kids and has to live with them. It's jam packed full of jokes many of them very funny and has a warm heart.

Movie review - "Wish" (2023) **

 Some nice animation and tunes. The tunes don't seem to quite fir in the story. Maybe they did - I had trouble following the story. It's about a wizard/king (voiced by Chris Pine) who sets up an island kingdom where he grants people's wishes. I think he does when he can but when he can't he steals their wishes which is not nice but kind of minor league villainy. And the island people seem whiny because of they just want wishes.

The film impoves when Pine goes full villain. It lacks realised support characters - the most interesting thing about the lead is she looks like Meaghan Markle, but I had trouble telling the human characters apart (Pine's wife, lead girl's group of friends, lead girl's mum and grandad). It was hard to care.

The animated animals though had real spark - donkey, bear, rabbits, etc. The script needed a few more drafts - I felt that of Frozen 2 and Wrinkle in Time.

Movie review - "Trolls Band Together" (2023) ***

 Big fun psychedlic visuals. Some very, very funny gags and there's a lot of them. Enjoyable manufactured pop star villains with Amy Schumer stealing the show. Justin Timberlake embraces his past. The plot is very traumatic when you think about it (TImberlake has all these brothers who abandoned him, Anna Kendrik's father didn't tell her about the existence of a sister - to be fair this plot was clearly thrown in to give her something to do).  Good fun,

Movie review - "Migration" (2023) **1/2

 Absolutely fine. Some really funny gags, like Awkwafina (who must have the record for appearances in animated films) getting run over. For all its admirable diversity behind the mike I note that the dad still seems to make all the decisions. Decent animation and colour. Story a little iffy. It seems to lack subtext. Why did they bother bringing Danny de Vito's character along he doesn't do anything?

Movie review - "Beauty and the Beast" (1991) ****

 It's been copied a lot - so, so much - but this was a slick account of the story, with a bright heroine, yquality animation, strong voice work from the good old days before frigging movie stars did it all. Katzenberg should be proud.

Movie review - "Elemental" (2023) **1/2

 Much to admire. The animation is excellent, particularly on the big screen, some lovely gags and moments, I enjoyed the world of the different elements, fire vs water vs earth vs air.

It doesn't quite work. It's not really a film for kids its an intercultural romance - which I know so was Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast but they had songs and a more propulsive story, with villains and ticking clocks. This is more Guess Who's Coming to Dinner with clunky artificial story drivers like shutting down the store, and fixing the dam It needed more of a coathanger, like solving a mystery, searching for someone, or even just beating a villain.

Also it makes remarkable mistakes in identifying the audience with the lead. Good Disney/Pixar gives us time with the lead - why not show her as a baby in Fireland, with the parents as they leave for the new country, a decent time on the boat (a great moment in the film but far too brief), experience time with her as she experiences prejudice and sees what a great set of parents she has. This is all shown in flashback. The old, very effective mantra of taking time has been thrown out the window.

Not a mystery why people didn't go for it.

Movie review - "The Super Mario Bros Movie" (2023) **

 Bright colours, full of action. Some funny moments, like the scene with the dog at the beginning that doesn't really touch on the story. Seems to lack heart - or a key relationship. They seem unsure how to pitch the princess - bright pink, a warrior, who still stands back while Mario does the key stuff....? I get these things are tricky to navigate. Luigi doesn't do much. I like Donkey Kong.

Movie review - "The Little Mermaid" (1989) ***

 The film that brought back Disney, along with The Great Mouse Detective. Fun songs and humour, lots of camp (Ursula is like a drag queen - she was based on Divine), pleasing animation, dodgy story telling (Ariel is sixteen and a moron)

Movie review - "Addams Family 2" (2021) **

 Not very good. Some decent animation but lazy gags, dumb story ideas (Wednesday's biological father), too much reliance on pop culture.

Book review - "Somehwere Out There: My Animated Life" by Don Bluth

 Bluth's had an interesting career, definitely carved out his own niche as the animation guy who wasn't Disney. He was Disney, and was being fast tracked to take over, but got jack and set up his own shop making The Secret of Nimh. He cough and spluttered along afterwards, never seemed to really crack it but also managed to make eleven films, including An American Tail, Land Before Time and Anastasia.

Bluth wanted to be an animator from an early age but still took a lot of detours - he got a job at Disney then quit it to be a Mormon missionary in Argentina (he's still a Mormon), he went back to Disney later, set up his own shop later.

Bluth refers to some young romances but never got married and never talks of girlfriends. This is odd for such a memoir.

The book is at its best discussing the films - at least that's what I'm most interested in. The dealings of Disney in the 70s, the emergence of the CalTech kids such as Brad Bird, John Lassiter and  Tim Burton (a powerhouse of talent) who Bluth says didn't like him (I'd like to know more about this), moving out on his own, going into video games, the comfort and challenges of Spielberg, moving to Ireland, difficulties with writers, eventually going bust, being rescued by Fox then going bust again.

Where does Bluth stand in cinema? He had a the soul of an artist. Made a lot of films people are fond of. Was independent in animation when that was really brave (I guess it's brave now). Maybe he didn't have the talent to match his dreams but he had the dreams and enough talent to go his own way. As he himself admits his greatest legacy is probably providing Disney with some competition and independent operators such as Pixar with someone to emulate.

Movie review - "Minions: Rise of Gru" (2022) ***

 Big, loud, colorful. I enjoyed the 70s jokes - disco and what not. The plot involves a chase for a Thing. I zoned out in the last third - some were on their way to San Fransisco, others went somewhere else. It was enjoyable.  The vocal work from Jean Claude Van Damme, Dolph Lundgren and Danny Trejo felt wasted, ditto Alan Arkin's Wild Knuckles character. Julie Andrews does a voice! Still, it was fine.

Movie review - "Lightyear" (2022) ****

 Great fun. Clever, with heart (I teared up at the time jump stuff), some twists. I wonder what happened to the rookie with the sad eyes - that was set up for a plot that's not paid off. Everything else is. Not an origin story so much as the story of the movie that inspired the toy in Toy Story. Some exciting action sequences. Funny cat - which is admittedly used a lot to get the writers out of tight corners.